


mirage

by cuddlesjm



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Mentions of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22941673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesjm/pseuds/cuddlesjm
Summary: There are ghosts in the corridors and there are terrors living within the town's people and yet they utter not a single word of complaint. Nobody dares to break the dreamlike haze that overtakes them all. Nobody that is, except Lee Donghyuck. Pretty, pretty Lee Donghyuck.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	mirage

**Author's Note:**

> nahyuck makes my writer's brain want to explore and so i have wandered from my normal writing style but i hope you enjoy it anyways! there are mentions of death sort of? so if you do not feel comfy reading it please be wary.

Time slows when it rains. It simmers and sits and crashes and roars. Life, Jaemin has realized, is just a little more fun when you're on the edge. At the very cliffs of your sanity.

Waiting, for the next clap of thunder.

In the same, time stretches as far as the eye can see but it leads Jaemin nowhere. Nothing ever leads to anything here. There are ghosts in the corridors and there are terrors living within the town's people and yet they utter not a single word of complaint. Not even a hushed whisper is tossed through the entire expanse of the town. Nobody dares to break the dreamlike haze that overtakes them all.

Nobody that is, except Lee Donghyuck. Pretty, pretty Lee Donghyuck.

Pretty things tire easy. They bend and break and lose their shine after a good wear or two and it's sort of like you've gone out of your way to collect the stars but they burn away at the tips of your fingers. They fizzle and fade and you're left with only the wants of something great and the griefs of the truth you never asked to hear.

Jaemin wonders if he's been given a truth or if he is so caught up in the haze of something beautiful he sort of idealizes until he's seeing what he chooses in place of what is.

Donghyuck catches light like off brand crystal earrings, unbeknownst to the common eye yet out of place to the knowing. He glows and brightens rooms and he pitches his voice differently, nice and sweet, around the wealthier folk, the well off ones. But he is just that bit off kilter, amateur in his right.

Donghyuck’s temper flares with little provocations and his words chime and ring loudly in a quiet room. Rumors fly of him who kisses in corners and behind buildings like he's never known light and Jaemin catches interest like sparking fire. It becomes a crucial part of his daily routine to wonder and worry of him, the boy of twisted fairy tale.

Heat trickles in through the vents at the edges of the room and encases them in a tense warmth that slips underneath their clothes and burns at their skin. Jaemin thinks it is unfair the sweat sheen splattered across Donghyuck’s face highlights him beautifully. Had he been born to royalty, Donghyuck would’ve made a wonderful prince. Young and valiant and charming to the point of no return.

Instead they wipe away at their foreheads and squint their eyes to keep out excessive sunlight and dust matter.

An eerie cry sounds from the distance but Donghyuck carries on like normal. The last cries of help stew until they are only whines, easily disregarded. Jaemin loses focus, haunted by the normality of the moment. Donghyuck takes Jaemin’s pensive moment in stride and intertwines their fingers.

This is the breaking point of Donghyuck’s mirage, he is far too comfortable in the face of the darkness that lingers within their town. Perhaps, circumstance has stripped him of his humanity. Perhaps he has been driven insane, trapped in a town where nothing happens, where nobody leaves. 

A single shiver runs along Jaemin’s spine. Donghyuck’s hands are alarmingly cold, they trace ice into his veins and leave him empty. His touches, Jaemin decides, are meant for comfort but they feel like reminders that nothing good survives in this town. Pretty things shatter easy and happiness is elusive.

When Jaemin lost his first person to the terror, he was six years old. Old enough to feel the absence, too young to stop the fear that struck him when he was alone. 

Terrors took to the town with a hunger that plagues Jaemin’s nightmares. It has been so long, so consistent in its plight it’s become familiar. A town known for its beauty became whispers of everything but.

It is funny how quickly people flee from others in pain, how they trip over each other in their attempts to escape, how easy it becomes to forget. Irony in the way a town of people, of noise becomes dormant within the second.

“We could take the first train out,” Donghyuck says. He must have something for tossing wishes in a well. 

It is fairytale, the way Donghyuck still says things like this. Jaemin figures it is his way of coping, something in the way of comforting Jaemin when really it is to reign in the little bits of sanity he keeps close. 

When Jaemin and Donghyuck were little they’d play a game of who they’d be if they lived far, far away. In Donghyuck’s dreams he was a billionaire, he would never have to ask for anything. The world would bow down to him, he’d take and take just like it had taken from him. Donghyuck would rule lands. That was who he’d be if he were to leave.

Donghyuck is strange because he says he believes in tomorrow. Donghyuck is ostracized because it is clear he does not believe himself, it is obvious he lies through his teeth. Donghyuck’s lost everything in his life except his will to leave this town and that is the real reason why the town has turned against him. They are a jealous people, envious of the beauty that cannot be uprooted from within Donghyuck. Not even the terrors had dimmed his light.

Donghyuck still has the will to lie to himself and say it will be okay.

Jaemin, he’d wished to be normal. He wished for a nine to five. He wished for his mother’s cooking, a full table, a noisey living room. He did not dare to wish for bigger, afraid he’d ask for too much and have the little he still had taken from him. 

The terrors never stop, never lose their hunger. They spread like gossip, sink in skin and stay. New hosts, tearing apart from the inside. Jaemin and Donghyuck cannot leave, they are trapped within these four walls, in the same endless cycle. 

It has been a long time since anybody left this town.

Jaemin does not think they will ever have a chance to carry through with the tension that sits in their space. Tonight it does not move, it sits and watches Donghyuck play his games, convinces Jaemin they cannot stay here forever, that they can make it. Donghyuck continues to lie. All he does is lie.

A spark lighting the entirety of a blackened town. 

There has always been something off about Donghyuck yes, but he cannot leave. There will be no morning, no day, only night if Donghyuck leaves. He does not understand that he cannot escape. He shimmers wickedly and enchants Jaemin, join me he whispers. His eyes are empty, they do not tell stories of pain or grief. They are pitch black and Jaemin fears, he does but Jaemin does not differ. 

Jaemin mentions this to Donghyuck, asks him if his eyes have always shone like this. Donghyuck does what he is best at, he puts up a front and tells Jaemin they have. He has always been like this, a little wicked and lost. It is a lie, Jaemin has known him his entire life. 

Donghyuck was true. He was righteous and fair and his eyes were always bright with wonder. Jaemin cannot understand why Donghyuck tries so hard to convince everyone he will escape. He will be better he says, but Jaemin knows it is only a matter of time before he crumbles. Perhaps, that is why he is so anxious, the timer ticks and ticks away.

Still, Jaemin admires Donghyuck. Even though he is twisted, even though he will break.

“If we run fast enough, they might not catch us,” Jaemin smiles all of a sudden, a surge of insanity drives him. Perhaps he’ll end up just like Donghyuck if he continues taking tips from his book, if he keeps playing along.

Jaemin finds he isn’t really scared of becoming like Donghyuck. He figures it is better to join him, to soar in his daydreams than to be stuck in a never ending loop. Anything has to be better than a countdown.

“When I am out there, once I get up there. I will take as much as I can, to avenge us. For us. I’ll make sure the world knows it should not have messed with Na Jaemin,” Donghyuck’s voice is loud and promising and he makes sure to look Jaemin in the eye as he speaks.

Donghyuck is a mad man but Jaemin will pitch, he will be the one to take the fall for Donghyuck’s dreams. 

Even so, even though he knows Donghyuck will become his end, he smiles. 

“For us.”

**Author's Note:**

> my twt is httpminhyung and my cc is fairyjae if you want to interact or leave something!! thank you for reading! i hope the feelings i wanted to come across are there and i hope it wasnt too messy for you <3


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